Why pin the what are you tying threads

[poopdeck]

I don't understand why the what are you tying threads get pinned. They are not SBS's and they largely lack any instruction or recipes that would make searching useful. Why not just let them slip off to the next page and keep the top of the page fresh and appealing to the eye. I don't get it. What am I missing?

 

[redietz]

I'm with you on this. The very fact that the subject is "What are you tying TODAY" pretty much acknowldges that they're of transient interest.

 

[afishinado]

poopdeck wrote:
I don't understand why the what are you tying threads get pinned. They are not SBS's and they largely lack any instruction or recipes that would make searching useful. Why not just let them slip off to the next page and keep the top of the page fresh and appealing to the eye. I don't get it. What am I missing?

The "What are you tying" thread is a continuous thread that sits in the Fly Tying forum all the time for members to post their latest and greatest patterns. At a certain point a new thread is started and the older threads are pinned because threads too large have become corrupted on the site.

The current thread is here
and is chronological order. Feel free to post your flies. Have fun!

 

[JackM]

The question about why it pin it, why not "locked it" is interesting. If it is locked, it can no longer be added to except by an administrator. This would let the locked threads slip off the page, but eventually make it harder for someone to find the thread. It is a popular thread, not only for those posting, but those reading.

I am not that excited about fly tying to much care one way or another.

 

[redietz]

JackM wrote:
It is a popular thread, not only for those posting, but those reading.

The fact that it is a popular thread means that it will stay near the top regardless of whether it's pinned, at least the current one. How much traffic does "part 1" get that it needs to be pinned?

 

[Volksnurse]

Personally, I like being able to look through them without searching for the thread...

 

[poopdeck]

Don't get me wrong I enjoy looking at the current postings but the current thread will always be at the top since its continually added to. What happens in the coming years when the first 5, 6,7,8,9 or 10 threads are otherwise useless old news occupying the top spaces. This is what I mean as being unappealing to the eye. What happens if interest wanes and the current thread drops to the second page?

Again, I like looking at the pictures but that's all they are. It's not really a searchable database that helps or instructs tying particular patterns that one can reference. It's simply here's what I tied today.

 

[JackM]

I would suggest that you stand nearly alone in being bothered by it.

 

[JackM]

redietz wrote:

JackM wrote:
It is a popular thread, not only for those posting, but those reading.

The fact that it is a popular thread means that it will stay near the top regardless of whether it's pinned, at least the current one. How much traffic does "part 1" get that it needs to be pinned?

Maybe you misunderstand. Once a thread gets a certain length, it becomes problematic to the database. Sealing it off saves administrative trouble, but leaves it available to readers. Pinning it keeps it prominent.

 

[redietz]

No, I don't misunderstand at all. Part one, which I suspect no longer gets visited very often, has no need to stay near the top. Part two, will stay near the top naturally because it's popular. As it is, I can't tell at glance whether there's anything new in the thread because it's always directly at the top. (This is partly because this particular forum software doesn't mark single threads as read or not.) As a result, I probably miss things that I might have enjoyed otherwise.

(I may be more sensitive to this than others because when I was laid up last winter on my back last winter, scrolling was physically painful. I bothered me every time I had to scroll year's old threads to get to new content.)

Another forum to which I belong has an "Archives" sub forum. It's meant for things like part one of "today" thread. Easy to find, but you don't have current threads cluttered to with cruft. (The current half of the thread belongs here, though -- but doesn't need to be pinned.)

 

[poopdeck]

JackM wrote:
I would suggest that you stand nearly alone in being bothered by it.

Not bothered by it all, I'm just a visionary. Guess we will have to wait until half the page is pinned threads.

 

[JackM]

Yes, wait for that to become bothered.

 

[Steeltrap]

Well.....hold on just a second. If I just "visit" a thread....just look at it and not post on it, the thread will not stay at the top. In order for the thread to either move to the top, or stay at the top, a posting has to be made to it. Either that, or the thread has to be pinned.

So, if the thread is simply locked....and then just looked at a lot, it will continue to slip back every time a new thread is made.

 

[Maurice]

This is a true story. What Steeltrap says.

The what are you tying threads are a popular and often visited item. I can't say I've been bothered by them or their parents in the pinned section. I suppose over time this could become an issue but two pinned threads does not make a crisis.

 

[1hook]

First world problems

 

[nfrechet]

having the previous threads pinned is a lot better than sifting through 5887 replies and 588 pages on another board i visit

moderators keep up the good work

 

[pro4mance]

Norm with a Mic Drop please stop this madness

 

[Cold]

There's also likely a bit of chicken/egg at play too.

The argument that it'd be at/near the top anyway if not pinned is speculation, but an equally valid speculation is that it is, in fact, so regularly posted to specifically because it's always up at the top.

In my experience moderating other fora, I'd also suspect that a pinned thread for flies in a forum like this goes a very long way toward reducing clutter by giving every visitor one thread in which to post pics of their latest creation, as opposed to having a bunch of tyers who can't be bothered to search for the thread if it's dropped terribly far and instead of one thread with lots of pics you end up with 20 new threads a day with 1 or 2 pics of their latest creation.

This means that there's 20 other threads that you're not seeing on the front page because there's not one central location for all of this other clutter.